THE final dramatic moments of dictator Saddam Hussein before he was hanged were screened around the world yesterday.

TV pictures showed two balaclava-hooded executioners tighten a heavy noose around the neck of the manacled Butcher of Baghdad.

And just one second later, the monster plummeted 15ft through a trapdoor on the gallows - and went straight to hell.

Officials and even one of the hangmen danced gleefully around the despot's body as it was left to swayed on the gibbet for ten minutes.

Then the corpse of the man with the blood of at least 300,000 innocent men, women and children on his hands was cut down and bundled up in a white bodybag.

Saddam, 69, had showed no remorse for his horrific crimes against humanity as he was led in chains to his doom.

In a show of bravado, the mass murderer refused to wear a hood, which was left wrapped round his throat. Some witnesses to the dawn execution claimed they saw the brute who had terrorised Iraq for 24 years tremble with fear as he approached the gallows.

But a judge who watched Saddam die insisted he remained defiant to the end. Clutching a copy of Islam's holy book the Koran, the fallen despot shouted his last words:

'Iraq without me is nothing. God is great. The nation will be victorious and Palestine is Arab. There is no god but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet.'

US President George Bush later hailed the execution at Camp Justice - an Iraqi army compound north of Baghdad - as "an important milestone".

He added: "It is a testament to the Iraqi people's resolve to move forward after decades of oppression that, despite his terrible crimes against his own people, Saddam Hussein received a fair trial."

And speaking on behalf of Premier Tony Blair, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said: "I welcome the fact that Saddam Hussein has been tried by an Iraqi court for at least some of the appalling crimes he committed against the Iraqi people."

Saddam's death - televised live across Iraq - sparked wild celebrations among Shi'ite opponents yesterday. Thousands danced in the streets and fired guns in the air.

Housewife Salwa Alwan, 45 - whose husband and brothers were executed by Saddam - said: "The justice of heaven has been done."

And Jawad Abdul-Aziz - who lost his dad, three brothers and 22 cousins when Saddam gassed rebel Kurds - said: "Now he is in the garbage of history." But there was also a spate of car bombs across Iraq in the hours after the execution.

At least 79 people died and another 137 were injured as pro-Saddam Sunni insurgents bayed for revenge.

Saddam's body may now be buried by clan members near his hometown Tikrit.

Fifteen people witnessed yesterday's execution, including government ministers, members of parliament, relatives of Saddam's victims, justice ministry officials and court staff.

They said Saddam remained defiant throughout the 25-minute procedure and refused to show any remorse for his reign of terror.

Judge Munir Haddad said: "He seemed totally oblivious to what was going on around him.

"I was very surprised - he was not afraid of death."

And Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie said: "I could not see or feel any repentance in the man." But he claimed Saddam let his fear show as the sands of time ran out for him.

Mr al-Rubaie said: "He was a broken man. He was afraid."

And he defended the witnesses who had danced with joy around Saddam's body.

He revealed they were celebrating because they had all lost close relatives in purges by the despot.

Mr al-Rubaie said: "It's a very natural reaction by ordinary people." And in a plea for calm, he added: "I would like to make this day a day of unity of Iraqis.

"We need to forgive, forget the past and look forward and progress toward stability, security and prosperity for Iraq."

The execution was carried out by an all-Iraqi team of men. Thousands had volunteered to help kill their former ruler.

No American or allied observers were allowed in.

There were not even any Islamic clerics in the room where Saddam died.

But the Iraqis used a gallows technique pioneered by Britain's last official hangman Albert Pierrepoint.

Condemned prisoners used to slowly suffocate when they were strung up, sometimes staying alive for 20 agonising minutes.

But Pierrepoint - who hanged 608 people before retiring in 1964 - brought in the "long drop" system which meant that death was almost instantaneous. Saddam seized power in Iraq in 1979 - and within a year had tried to invade neighbouring Iran. A million people died in the eight-year conflict that followed.

The Iraqi leader used poison gas during the war. And he later turned the chemical weapons against his own people when Iraqi Kurds and Marsh Arabs rose up against him.

Saddam survived a humiliating defeat by allied forces after he invaded Kuwait in 1991.

But he was finally toppled in 2003 after refusing to allow UN weapons inspectors into the country - sparking a US-led attack.

Saddam fled - but was found weeks later hiding under a floor.

His half brother and former chief justice are due to be executed at a later date.